Trisha Ray - Log of a Travel Artist: trains

Showing posts with label trains. Show all posts

Down to Toothbrush and a Credit Card: USA to Europe without Flying

No Airplanes, Please -

New Mexico to the South of France

by Train and Ship

We just crossed over the Missouri River.

On a train.

We have a small sleeper compartment.
Private bathroom.

Stan's playing guitar.

Stan's happy - there's a self-serve coffee stand at the end of our coach.

All meals are included on the 28 hour train trip from Albuquerque to Chicago.

Salmon, fillet steak, NY cheesecake.

A small bottle of merlot.

The attendant brings tea to our compartment between meals.

Makes up the beds.

Nice.

We weren't necessarily being "carbon conscious" by not flying.
I had retina surgery. Wasn't allowed to fly.

Okay, I thought - fine.
There has to be another way to get to France.
And - there is.

A pretty cool way, too.

Booked an Amtrak train from Albuquerque to Chicago.
Overnight.
Another one from Chicago to New York.
Also overnight.

Then, the Queen Mary.
New York to Southhampton in England.

It takes a week.

From there, Eurostar train London to Paris.
Under the English Channel.

And on by train to Béziers and "Maggie May".

The entire transit took about 3 weeks.
No jet lag.
Arrived relaxed and rested.

Even got to see a show in London on the way.

But back to the trip:

New Mexico is beautiful from the train.
Mountains. Mesas. Huge skies.

(Did you know - the Santa Fe Railway never went to Santa Fe.

The terrain was too tough. So it stopped in nearby Lamy.)

Lamy, NM.

Across Kansas.
Missouri.

Crossing a small corner of Iowa.
Into Illinois.

Fields and farms and quiet towns.

Over the Mississippi River.

Lots of water up here.
Still snow in some places!

Looks like it was a wet and wild winter in the Midwest.

Motorcycles are great. Still, I don't envy him, as I enjoy a glass of wine on the train.

Finally - the train pulls into Chicago.

Clean, cool architecture.

Museums, clubs, shows, parks.

Friendly folks.

And a killer location right on the lake.

One of the better world-class cities.

A bit unsung.

During the previous 5 months, we sold our house in New Mexico.

And a rental house or two.

Sold the cars.
16 bicycles. 6 motorized bicycles.
Furniture. Antiques from the 1700's.

Gave away art materials, original art.

Tons of tools.
Carloads of books.

About 40 guitars.
Dozens of handmade rugs.

Clothes, linens, kitchenware, dishes, baskets, statues, silver, coins, collections, quilts, jewelry.

Yearbooks, photos, slides, projectors, albums, projects, awards, trophies, paintings.

-Untold treasures.

Even gave the cat to the neighbor.
(Cat is probably happier now)

The goal was to get rid of everything.

Aiming toward a "toothbrush and a credit card" life.

Lightening the load a bit.

Not just downsizing. Everything. Gone.

After that job, (and it was HARD!) this long slow trip was welcome.

From Chicago, another train.

The Lake Shore Limited.

Sleeper compartment to New York.

Along the edges of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.

Past Buffalo, where my Dad was born in 1910.

The Queen Mary II is our next step.
For the transatlantic portion of our trip back to France.

Always wanted to take the Queen Mary.

It's not a cruise ship, it's an ocean liner.

Transport, rather than entertainment.

Between New York and Southhampton, UK.

And: It IS beautiful.
Luxurious.
Spacious.
Elegant.

Our stateroom has loads of space.

Even a fridge.
An electric kettle.

A private balcony.

A king bed.
A comfortable sitting area.

With a complimentary bottle of champagne.

Turn down service.
With chocolates.

Evenings are quite formal - most men in tuxedos, most women in sparkly dresses.

Lots of ballroom dancing.
Live music in the evenings.

Shows. Speakers.

A planetarium.

You can go to the buffet or the pub if you want to stay casual.
Otherwise, evening attire is expected.

The ship's library is the largest afloat - it's impressive.

Stan is still happy.
He's got his guitar and a view.

And coffee.

(I thought this might be some sort of modern art sculpture.

Turns out it's a spare propeller blade. Yikes.)

I love just watching the ocean slide by.
No responsibilities.

Being amazed that there is NOTHING around us.
In any direction.
Just water.

(Ok, maybe an iceberg or two up by Labrador.)

And we have so little idea of what is UNDER the water out here.

After 7 nights' crossing, London-!

We find last minute tickets to a West End show.
Go out for a fancy dinner after.

TGV (the Train of Great Speed) from London to Paris.

The Eurostar.
Upstairs.
Quiet.

Under the English Channel.
Fast.

Change stations in Paris.

Passing over the Seine.

Through the fields and villages of France .

Way down to the south.

To Béziers overnight, before returning to the boat.

Then - finally, after a trip that took us 3 weeks:

It's time to open the champagne.

On the aft deck of Maggie May.

Travel by Train - Venice Mail Cars to Russian Night Trains

The train was Italian.

We were 4 backpackers.
About 17 years old.

Heading to Venice from Lugano, Switzerland.

It was the early '70's.

(It wasn't this train. The TEE was way too fancy for us. But similar.)

Every seat on the train was taken.

The aisles were packed.

It was hot.

We pushed through the train cars with our backpacks.

We came upon the MAIL CAR.

Bingo! No one there.

Were we allowed to be there?

Probably not.

We closed the door and made ourselves comfortable on the huge sacks of mail.

Windows wide open. Sprawled. Heaven.

Backpacks tossed on the floor of the train.

The entire car to ourselves.

The BEST seats on the train.

And so we traveled.

In complete unofficial luxury.

To Venice.

For the first time.

Magic.

Ah, Venezia! Che bella! -Maybe not the pigeons.

That was my first real train trip.

17 years old. I was hooked.

The alternative was hitchhiking. I was 17 here, and freezing. Home was a tent.

I still book trains whenever I can.

This summer, I found a sleeper train from Paris to Berlin.

A Russian train. In Paris. Going to Berlin!

(It wasn't easy to find.)

We had 2 friendly Russian conductors.
Just for our sleeping car.

No English.
No French.

-They spoke a little German.

Brought us tea in fancy mugs.

Our Russian train conductor.

In Berlin, it's asparagus season - and family time!

Then - by train on to Prague.

I'd last been in Prague in 1984.
Still behind the "Iron Curtain".

At that time, it was echo-y and empty.
Foggy and a bit medieval - melancholy.

Totally mysterious. Mildly intimidating.

Prague. Now a popular destination. Everyone on cellphones and using English.

That was 1984.

Prague has changed - dramatically.

Other memorable train trips?

Sleeper trains in India.

Weirdly, one of the best experiences.

Sleeper trains in India. In the evening, they make up your bed with fresh sheets and pillows.

The Nilgiri Hills. In southern India.

Heading north on a train through Malaysia with friends met in Singapore.

Night trains in China - with signs telling us to "take care for our treasures".

The Glacier Express in Switzerland.
From St. Moritz to Zermatt, across the Alps.

And: the most bizarre of all -

The "Bamboo Train" in Cambodia.

Whatever we were expecting, it wasn't this:

How the Bamboo Train works- and a Myanmar train that BOUNCES in Shan State - here.

Unexpected neighbors on a train.

Even in the USA. The Southwest Chief, from Albuquerque.

There's just something infinitely cool about train travel.
I still love it.

The pleasure of being able to just watch the scenery go by.
Reading on a train.
Being able to talk to other passengers a bit.
Walking around a bit. Sleeping.

Then, not having to park or wait for a jetway to appear.
Just - grabbing your bag and - stepping off at a station.

Waving good-bye.

On to the next adventure.

Just - grab your backpack and - GO. On adventure!

And yes, we DID eventually make it back to Béziers.

In spite of train strikes.

By train.

Béziers train station - on a non-strike day.

Nice to be "home", too.

Norway. Sweden. Finland (a bit of Berlin, Denmark and Estonia)

It was a good plan.

In the hottest months of summer, we'd head far north.

- Escape the heat of southern Europe.

To Scandinavia.

Land of moody mountains and windswept waterways.

- I pictured sweater weather on lonely fjords -

- misty mornings in a lakeside cabin -

However - Europe had other plans.

Scandinavia decided to have a record heatwave.

Summer shirts instead of Nordic sweaters.

A "Tom Sawyer" style raft. Beating the heat in Copenhagen.

These are countries not used to hot weather.
There's no air conditioning.

Not in hotels.
Not in trains or buses.

Usually the windows are (painfully) not even designed to open.

It was HOT.

And - I'm not even going to talk about the bedbugs.

With that disclaimer behind us, here's what we found:

Some things I didn't know about Scandinavia until we traveled through.
Via trains, ferries, bus, bikes, boats.

In fact, did you know they actually put WHOLE TRAINS onto a ferryboat?

And sail it across the Baltic Sea?

They did that for our trip from Hamburg to Copenhagen.

Son Erik said they did the same when he went from Berlin to Malmö.

That was a first for me.

Apparently, there used to be train ferries between England and France.

In the Baltic, they're still used, and quite common.
And efficient.

Who knew?

The whole area is so filled with water.
Lakes, seas, rivers, islands, whole archipelagos, so much water.

It's heaven for anyone interested in boats.

All sorts, all shapes.

Harbors and marinas aplenty.

Helsinki - one of many harbors.

Water taxis and ferries everywhere.
And - they're big!

I thought these were cruise ships.

No, just ferries.

In Norway, when we told the ferry captain that we lived on a boat in France, he handed the controls to us.

Let us drive the ferry down the fjord.

It was early morning and there weren't many passengers.
Or other ships.

How cool is that?

(Neither Stan nor I were particularly good at keeping it straight.
But there really wasn't much traffic.)

The fjords in Norway DID fulfill my image.
Misty moisty mysterious mountains tumbling into cold water .

For a few days, it was even jacket weather.

They make cheese in this town - one of the farmers was our taxi driver.

Did you know that Norway is the richest country in the world?

Unlike most places, they don't spend it.
They save it.

The sovereign wealth fund in Norway is the largest in the world.

That's not per capita.
(they only have 5 million people).

So people don't REALLY have to work.
And many don't.

Norway itself runs almost entirely on renewable energy.

Yes, they make all their money selling oil and gas, and investing in oil exploration.

But Norway itself stays "clean".

The Norwegians seem aware of the apparent contradiction.

Norway is spectacularly beautiful.

I asked our Norwegian friend why there weren't more people out sailing on the lakes.

It was perfect weather. Summer.
There weren't all that many boats out.

She thought about it and answered,
"I think maybe we have too many lakes for not enough people."

- Cool.

At one point, we rented bicycles in the Swedish lake district.
(Yes, more lakes. More water.)

Farms and fields and the usual Swedish red houses.

It felt like a Carl Larsson painting.

There were wild blueberries to pick.

Which - wound up mysteriously - on my birthday pie!

My grandmother's family was from Sweden. My grandfather's from Norway. Happy birthday, Trish!

Other than blueberries, the best meal anywhere in Scandinavia is easy:

Salmon.

Smoked salmon.
Salmon steaks.

Other fish too.
(although burgers were oddly popular-)

But - the salmon was exceptional.

On one day, I had salmon for all 3 meals.

Just so you know:
If there is bread and salmon at a Swedish buffet,
the salmon always goes on the white bread.
Not the rye.

(-There are a lot of unwritten rules in Sweden.)

Alcohol is government controlled.
It can only be sold in government-approved stores.
It's surprisingly expensive.

But sometimes an exception can be made for beer.
- Not that anyone goes overboard...

(Now that I live on a boat, that expression finally makes perfect sense.)

Did you know - you have to wait for your host to lift his/her glass to say Skøl before you can drink?

And - you NEVER clink glasses when you toast in Scandinavia.

It's just - not done.
Another unwritten rule.

Outside Stockholm there are over 30,000 islands.

That's right.
The Stockholm archipelago.

The ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki or Tallinn takes 3 hours to sail through them.

3 hours! A huge ferry!

That's a LOT of islands.

I had rented a small wooden house on one of the islands for a week.

A tiny house.
A tiny island.

With a tiny dock and a tiny rowboat.

Next door, a tiny old Swedish woman who had grown up on the island.

She spoke with such a wonderful lilting accent.
A bit like the Swedish chef on the Muppets.

The Swedes are big on equality.

But - some of the houses on this island were sure a lot more "equal" than other places we'd seen!

That's just the boat house.

Everything manicured and perfect.
And splendidly beautiful.

Everyone with a boat.
Or three.

Just 40 minutes from Stockholm.

For us, our "tiny house with a dock" was just perfect.

Always take your shoes off in a Swedish house. Another rule.

Another thing I hadn't considered when making these plans for Scandinavia.
Cruise ships.

Apparently, cruise ships are VERY popular here.

Since it's a very pricey part of the world, being on a cruise ship is a good way to control costs.

However, these huge ships even come up the fjords to tiny towns.

Look at the size of the town! And the size of the boat!

There were cruise ships in every port.

In the mornings (and in evenings) the streets were ours.

Tallinn, Estonia, by morning...

But - by 10 am, the cruise crowds arrived.

And the streets were packed.

Tallinn by afternoon.

Copenhagen during the day.

On the subject of Finland:

Did you know the most famous Finn seems to be a small fat creature called a Moomin?
I read Moomin stories to the kids when they were small.

Moomins are still around.

Also, I thought that this particular restaurant chain must be very popular.

There were so many with the same name in Helsinki!

Then I figured out that "Ravintola" means "restaurant".

Oops.

A couple other things I learned:

The Norwegians are proud of their heritage as fishermen and farmers.

Scandinavians like their flags - on walls, roofs, cakes, pet bowls.

(and maybe a few proud Vikings)

They enjoy the folk-tales and old stories.
Traditional costumes.

Festivals.

The Swedes, in comparison, think it's mildly embarrassing.
They prefer being modern.

This is about as "folksy" as Sweden gets. Very tidy.

(By the way, did you know that "Bluetooth" was named for a Viking?
King Harald Bluetooth. 980 AD)

Helsinki is expensive.
Alcohol is particularly expensive.
And - Finns like to drink.

However, Estonia is just a 2 hour ferry away.
And in Estonia, alcohol is cheap.

And they like saunas. There are more saunas than cars in Finland.

So - the ferries run often.
And there is a LOT of serious drinking.

Impressive, world-class drinking.

Stan. Looking Estonian.

In Tallinn, drinking locales go all night.
They promote themselves as "where parties go to die".

(which I THINK is supposed to mean "party heaven")

In Helsinki, all the signs are in Finnish.
And in Swedish.

But - Finnish is related to Hungarian.
Go figure.

- This certainly makes reading maps a challenge.

And the Danes?

Apparently, among Scandinavians, the Danes are considered the Wild Bunch:
companies hire Danes to come in if there is restructuring to be done-!

After spending time in Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen, Lillehammer, Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn, this comic by Mikey is surprisingly spot-on: